whether and how to post fic

[mamajoan]

For a long time I've been the bane of various listmoms of fanfic lists, in cases where all fics posted to the list are, by policy, archived on the list website. I'm anal and don't want my fic anywhere but my own site. So some listmoms/webmistresses have been kind enough to post links to my stuff instead of posting the actual story; they do this in varying degrees of snarky, which I don't at all begrudge them. And then some of them just do the snarky and don't put my stories on their sites at all.

But with the advent of the automatic-posting interfaces that they're using on several of the Smallville lists and at least one Buffy list that I know of, I'm wondering whether it might be time to change my tune.

The reason I originally developed the "my stories on my site only" policy was basically due to an incident with Siubhan and The Sith Academy, where she found one of her stories floating around the 'net on various lists and websites, credited to "anonymous." Needless to say, that freaked her out and pissed her off, and it really brought home how fragile our control over our own work is on the 'net. It only takes a single unscrupulous asshole to download a story from a webpage, strip off the name, replace it with his/her own, and start disseminating it again. (The current data on how few American schoolkids understand why plagiarism is bad make me find this all too plausible -- but that's a whole nother rant and don't EVEN get me started.)

And certainly, doing the Buffy transcripts has taught me that there are a lot of those assholes out there. You'd be appalled (at least I hope you would) at how many times I've found my transcripts posted on other sites without my name on them, or with my disclaimers removed. I put big disclaimers on every transcript, with exclamation points and red text saying not to post it on your site without asking me first, and people just blithely delete that stuff and post away anyway. Argh! Ahem, but I digress.

So anyway, here are the pro's and con's of restricting my fic to my website only.

Pro:

• Maintain the illusion of control over copyright; can change or remove the story whenever I want.
  
• Drives traffic to my site -- my other fic in particular.

Con:

• Illusion of control is just that: illusion.
  
• A lot more people surf the big archives; not many people are linking to my site. So I'm depriving myself of a much larger readership by not posting on the big archive sites. (At least, I think they have a big readership!)

Basically, I'm conflicted. The logical side of me realizes that it's silly to shoot myself in the foot, and that people are no more likely to steal my work from an archive than from my own site. But the anal side gets all twitchy at the thought of sending my little stories out there into the cold cruel world.

When it comes right down to it, I guess I should just get over myself. What do you think?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Well, on the pro side, if you put your stuff on the big sites in your own name, it's less likely to get archived there under someone else's name...

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

heh, good point. Thanks.

[azurelunatic]

You're welcome. Every side of a problem...

[wickdzoot.livejournal.com]

And kick your inner child's ass? Nah. But I'm the last person to give advice on this, because it's been an ongoing quandary for me.

You're right. Control fragile and perhaps only an illusion. Regardless of this inescapable fact, I think I'd encourage you to do what makes you the most comfortable. I had a password protected site at one point; the protection itself was mostly pro forma, and pretty easy for anyone really knowledgeable to get around, but my aim wasn't to exercise an iron grip. If someone wanted to read the stories, I was pretty easygoing about sharing the password; if someone was nuts enough to want to stir up trouble, they'd have to work out a way to get past the password protection and/or access the directory directly.

The thing is, in order for us to post, we have to have some level of comfort about what's happening out there with our creation; I'm certainly willing to concede the argument that the Web is a public forum and therefore nothing can truly be controlled there. I keep returning to the fact that if people stop being comfortable with posting, they aren't going to post. Duh, people. If they don't post, things get very quiet, we go back to print until people realize that a copy machine and a couple of bucks can do the same thing. And then, gasp, what? We go back to the seanachie at the fireside?

Imagine telling stories about your boys of choice around the fire....
Posting stories at all the large archives is one way to go about it, I guess, and if that works for making you comfortable, go for it.